Exhibition Details

As Syria’s ongoing civil war, staggering death toll, and displacement of thousands of refugees threatens to destroy Syrian culture, the Palace of the Governors will display seven albums of photographs of historic sites in Syria taken between 1899 and 1909. Entitled Syria: Cultural Patrimony Under Threat, the exhibition will includes a multi-functional information kiosk with insights into Syrian people and culture.

Partnering with Curators Without Borders, a non-profit that specializes in innovative museum collaborations for humanitarian response, the exhibition highlights the vast collection of albumen prints, showing not only the historic sites now destroyed in Syria, but representations of its people in adjacent collections within the Photo Archives.

As New Mexico has been the home to many diverse groups through its millennia who sought refuge from social, political, ethnic and religious strife, it continues to welcome most recently Syrian refugee families who are escaping the terrors of life in Syria today. The principal message of the exhibition is one of shared concern, empathy, unity, and support for those suffering amid diaspora.